Margaret Mead Film Festival Returns after Pandemic Hiatus, Countering Worrisome Trend in Festival Space

Writer Matthew Carey reports on the return of the longest-lasting nonfiction film festival in the United States—the Margaret Mead Film Festival—in May 2024, after a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking place at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, the festival celebrates documentary film from around the world. Carey details the lineup for the festival, the creation of the festival’s advisory board, the Emerging Visual Anthropologist Showcase, and sentiments from the festival’s director, Noah Bashevkin, and advisory board member Tabitha Jackson. Carey provides a brief commentary on the current landscape of documentary film festivals.